Bag-in-box packagings are widely used for storing various beverages, such as wine or juice. The packaging is formed of a flexible pouch or bag containing the liquid, and a rigid carton box enclosing the pouch. The pouch is equipped with a tap for dispensing the liquid to a receptacle, such as a glass. The carton contains an opening for accommodating the tap in a serving position.
A known disadvantage of the bag-in-box packagings is that the tap is located in a lower part of the packaging, which makes it difficult to position a glass underneath the tap. Either the glass must be held in an extremely tilted position, or the packaging must be positioned near the edge of a table or a corresponding surface. A further alternative is to place a separate holder or a stand, such as a plastic base, under the packaging to raise it.
Different solutions have been proposed in the prior art in order to solve these problems.
US 2011095037 (A1) discloses a stand that is based on two nested carton boxes. The user presses in tabs forming supporting sections, whereby four support points for a liquid container are formed.
EP 1826130 (B1) discloses a raising device for a wine package. It contains four lateral walls including lower parts, where each wall is perpendicular to two contiguous lateral walls. Each lower part of the wall is subjected to fold back towards an interior of the device, such that one of the folded lower parts serves as a support to a wine package.
FR 2798912 (A1) describes a stand that is based on flaps extending outwards from the bottom of the carton box.
NL 8900666 (A) describes a wine package that is slidable within an outer container. The package can be fixed at a certain height by pushing in triangular perforated areas that are located in the vertical ribs that join the sidewalls of the outer container.
Solutions that are based on the use of a separate stand are cumbersome, because the stand might not be available at all times and it must be purchased separately. Transporting and storing separate stands, or combinations of a stand and a liquid packaging, is not cost-effective.
Solutions that are based on two nested carton boxes, slidable vertically with respect to each other, require that the inner carton box and the outer carton box cooperate, which poses limitations to the design of the actual bag-in-box system and the tap construction.
Most of the known solutions provide a raised carton box in which a rather bulky stand in its assembled position occupies essentially the entire table surface that is located under the carton box. Positioning and centering a glass under the tap is therefore more difficult with such a stand in use when compared to placing the carton box on the edge of a table and holding a glass below the tap and partly under the table.